When Dean Kamen unveiled the Segway® Personal Transporter (PT) on ABC’s Good Morning America, he described the machine as “the world’s first self-balancing human transporter.” When you look at the machine in motion, you get an idea of what he’s talking about. Unlike a car, the Segway PT only has two wheels, yet it manages to stay upright by itself. Continues below…
Segway XT
Segway up the World’s Steepest Street
To move forward or backward on the Segway PT, the rider just leans slightly forward or backward. To turn left or right, the rider simply moves the LeanSteer frame left or right. You get the sense of power and speed, yet you also feel a sense of safety and absolute control. It all feels natural, safe, and instinctive.
The Segway PT can take you places that a car or bicycle can’t - including inside many stores, office buildings, businesses, airports, elevators, and trains. Although they’re ideal for short jaunts, Segway PTs can travel as far as 24 miles/38 km on a single battery charge, depending on terrain, payload, and riding style.
Like any invention that’s ahead of its time, the Segway PT is often misunderstood. The gleeful smiles of Segway PT riders may have created an impression that this is …well…a toy. But make no mistake. While a Segway PT is incredibly fun to ride, it is serious transportation designed for today’s world.
Tesla’s groundbreaking distinction is under its carbon-fiber skin. The $98,000 Tesla is the first production high-performance electric car. It is powered entirely by electricity, a plug-in that will never use a drop of gasoline. And it’s billed as being able to go 221 miles in mixed city/highway driving on a full battery charge.
It’s not about promises that the Tesla will deliver pin-you-back-in-your-seat acceleration — 0 to 60 miles per hour in a Ferrari-like 3.9 seconds — or its sexy appearance.
The sports car from San Carlos-based Tesla Motors has European sex appeal with power to match that defies the image of electric vehicles as poky carts for golf courses or senior villages.
Tesla is being touted as the first of a wave of electric cars that will bring the most profound change in the auto industry since the first Model T rolled off Ford Motor’s (F) assembly line 100 years ago. From Toyota (TM) to General Motors, (GM) the quest for clean air and independence from foreign oil is leading to the wall socket.
“It’s in the vanguard of the electric car revolution that is coming,” proclaims Elon Musk, the digital-age tycoon who is Tesla Motors chairman and largest shareholder of Tesla Motors.
Robert Schoenberger, auto writer for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, takes the new ultra-compact, high-mileage Smart Car for a test drive. Website http://www.smartusa.com/
These days there are a lot of small cars pounding their chests and claiming they get the best gas mileage around. Well, we got tired of the talk and decided to settle the score. Right here, right now!
We picked three cars from our long-term fleet known for squeezing extra miles out of every gallon of gas: the spunky 2008 Smart Fortwo with a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder engine, the thrifty 2008 Ford Focus SES coupe with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, with its legendary 1.9-liter “TDI” diesel engine. Then we added a heavily favored gasoline-electric hybrid to the mix: a 2008 Toyota Prius.
“The Age of Oil — 100-plus years of astonishing economic growth made possible by cheap, abundant oil — could be ending without our really being aware of it. Oil is a finite commodity. At some point even the vast reservoirs of Saudi Arabia will run dry. But before that happens there will come a day when oil production ‘peaks,’ when demand overtakes supply (and never looks back), resulting in large and possibly catastrophic price increases that could make today’s $60-a-barrel oil look like chump change…
A 90 minute documentary on the planet’s dwindling oil resources.
Matthew Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International in Houston, talked yesterday with Bloomberg’s Rhonda Schaffler about the need to address energy use, his view that global supply has peaked and the likelihood oil prices could reach as much as $300 a barrel. (Source: Bloomberg)
News piece on the Tesla Roadster Electric Car and Tesla Motors. Originally aired May 15, 2007 on ABC News Nightline.
It goes zero to 60 in about four seconds. Its top speed is 130 miles per hour. And it doesn’t use an ounce of gasoline.
It’s the Tesla Roadster, a new car that’s fueled entirely by electricity and could be hitting the lot just in time.
The Tesla Roadster is named after Nicola Tesla, the largely forgotten genius inventor of alternating current electricity, and it’s the brainchild of Martin Eberhard, who said he designed it because he cares about the environment and because he wanted one for himself.
“It’s time for us to do something about our dependence on foreign oil,” Eberhard said. “It’s time for us to do something about global warming. But I wasn’t ready to go drive around some goofy little car. & Think of how electric cars look. All the ones you’ve ever thought of.”
There haven’t been many electric cars. Early automobiles ran on electricity, as did General Motor’s ill-fated and quickly abandoned EV1, which debuted in the 1990s and died soon thereafter. Eberhard said there’s “nothing beautiful” about the Prius, perhaps the best-known hybrid car. “It doesn’t do anything for me,” he said. “Think of it this way. A world of 100 percent hybrids is still 100 percent addicted to oil.”
Fewer Moving Parts
“The motor [is] tiny by comparison to an engine in a typical combustion car. It weighs about 77 pounds, and you could literally put it in a backpack and walk out of the room with it if you chose to,” Vespremi said, while showing us the car. “What it does is, it has one moving part. It’s an AC motor, so it takes current straight from the battery and turns that into & the power that moves the car down the road.”
Is there anything that a standard gasoline-powered car offers that the Tesla lacks?
“Well, you have all the belts and the hoses and the gaskets and the plugs and exhaust components. None of that exists with this car. The entire drive line consists of 12 moving parts,” Eberhard said, as opposed to thousands in a regular car.
But there are drawbacks: The battery pack is warrantied for 100,000 miles, but after that, replacement could be costly — in the thousands of dollars. Tesla argues that with battery technology improving every year, each successive year’s models will be better. You’re not completely off the grid because it does require electricity, and you can go only 200 miles between charges.
Vespremi said the charging station can be installed by “any competent electrician,” and it allows you “to get that quick charging time of 3½ hours. Most people hook it up to the drier circuit. And then you just treat it like a gas pump.”
The Roadster is still in test mode — the company hopes to start actual production this fall. The car has gone for its first round of safety tests and, according to the company, has done extremely well.
Vespremi told us that part of the reason the car is so safe is because the chassis is made of extruded bonded aluminum, “the exact same kind of chassis that would be used in something like a Formula One car or an Indy car. This is what allows those drivers to wreck at a couple hundred miles per hour and walk away,” he explained.
So what does it cost to fill your tank these days? 40 dollars? 50 dollars? The average tank at today’s prices will cost over 60 dollars to fill, and many of us with larger tanks can pay a lot more, so we’ve gathered some experts and asked them what we can do to cut down on our fuel costs.
A one minute video highlighting a easy to do tips to save you gas, money and lower carbon emissions. This is the first in a series of videos from the Bedford, NY Energy Advisory Panel and the local effort against global warming.
Only about 15% of the energy from the fuel you put in your tank gets used to move your car down the road or run useful accessories, such as air conditioning. The rest of the energy is lost to engine and driveline inefficiencies and idling. Therefore, the potential to improve fuel efficiency with advanced technologies is enormous. With an Electric Car it costs just $1.00 per 100kms with MUCH more performance than with petrol at $20.00 per 100kms.
Electric Car FASTER THAN A FERRARI ENZO 0-60 3.07 sec! In-Car of ELECTRIC 0-60mph 3.07 sec - Wrightspeed Electric car vs Ferrari. Ariel Atom converted to Ev by Wrightspeed. 165KW 3 phase AC induction motor with 25 kWhr Lithium Ion battery pack.
• 3-phase AC induction motor, 236hp at the motor shaft
• 182 ft lbs torque at the motor shaft, from 0 rpm to 6,000 rpm
• 13,300 rpm rev limit
• weight 1,536 lbs
• no clutch, single gear ratio 8.25:1
It was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. It ran on electricity, produced no emissions and catapulted American technology to the forefront of the automotive industry. The lucky few who drove it never wanted to give it up. So why did General Motors crush its fleet of EV1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert?
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? chronicles the life and mysterious death of the GM EV1, examining its cultural and economic ripple effects and how they reverberated through the halls of government and big business.
admin | 
06 15th, 2008| 
Loading ...